Online advertising is easily the most effective way of generating exposure for a modern business. The whole world is online, meaning your new customers are just a few clicks away. While organic methods of generating attraction – such as SEO and social media marketing – are important, online ads give you a chance to tap directly into your market before they’ve ever seen you. It could be love at first sight, and it all starts with the ads.

When we talk about online adverts, we are really talking about a collection of ad types. Many exist, and some are more popular/successful than others. Speaking of which, you’re about to see a list of the most popular online advertising types that you absolutely need to know. If you’re aware of what they are and how they work, you can start implementing them to promote your business and generate more leads!

Display Advertising

Display ads are possibly the most common ones you will see online. When you venture onto a website, you will often see adverts placed around the page. Some are pop-ups, others are in a fixed place; it depends on how the site sets up its ads. These are called display ads, and they are typically in an image format, though you can get some videos as well.

They’re highly effective as they are displayed to individuals that are likely to enjoy the advert. It’s all based on cookies and someone’s browsing habits, ensuring that everyone receives adverts that are relevant to them. Thus, from your perspective, it means you’re falling straight into the arms of a target customer. To make things even better, display ads are typically charged on a cost-per-click basis. If nobody clicks on your advert, you don’t pay a penny.

PPC Advertising

Also known as search engine advertising, PPC stands for pay-per-click and follows a similar structure as display ads. You purchase the advert, which is then displayed on search engines. Ads are typically bought based on keywords and search terms – so, when someone searches for a keyword that you’ve bought ads for, your ad will show up in their search. Again, you only pay for your ad whenever there’s a click, though the going rates for PPC are typically much higher than display ads.

The flipside of that is that PPC ads are always the first search results anyone sees when they’re looking for something. Therefore, you have instant exposure and can get your brand name into the eyes of the consumer. It’s a very effective way of driving traffic to your website, at which point it’s down to you to convert. While they’re called ads, they are basically just search engine listings. So, you follow the same format as you would with all your web pages.

Video Advertising

Next, you have video advertising, which is highly powerful if a bit of a niche market. I say niche just because it only relates to adverts on videos. Here, you will need the help of a corporate video production team to film your ads before purchasing ad space on different websites. YouTube is the biggest and most well-known platform for this, and you will pay to have your ads shown on videos around the site.

Essentially, video advertising is a type of display advertising, in a way! The format and structure are very similar; you purchase ads, they are shown on videos but are tailored to the viewer, you pay if someone clicks on the ad. The difference is that video ads are less invasive than display ads, meaning people are more likely to pay attention to them. When someone watches videos on YouTube, they expect to be met with ads. It’s not as big of an annoyance as it is when scrolling through a website and seeing ad after ad. So, the clickthrough rate is higher, and you also have the advantage of non-skippable ads. Some ads can be skipped, but if you pay a bit more you can have your ads on videos without a skip button. This means people have to watch them, further increasing their efficacy.

Social Advertising

Social media is a worrying big part of modern society. It’s where most people go to get their news, it’s where customers interact with brands, and it’s where we all spend an outrageous amount of time. The average person will spend 145 minutes on social media every single day, and do you know what that means? It means we all have serious issues, yes, but it also means that social media is a phenomenal advertising platform.

With so many people using social media daily, advertisers started working with social platforms to create advertising opportunities. Every single social media site will have its own ad platform for you to use, buying ad space on it. Again, much like all other online ads, your adverts will be displayed to the most relevant people. You have loads of tools available on social media advertising platforms to segment your ads and detail your ideal target audience. The social media platform will then present your ads to people that fit your description, meaning you’re in the pocket of your target audience yet again.

Social media ads are arguably the most effective of all ads because of how effortless they are. They’re non-invasive and blend in with people’s feeds, meaning people look at or watch ads without even realizing it. For context, a whopping 30% of consumers who click on social media ads will make a purchase after clicking it!

On that note, we have come to the conclusion of today’s post. It is worth pointing out that other types of online advertising exist. Email advertising is one that’s getting more and more popular, letting brands advertise in people’s email inboxes. Nevertheless, the four examples shown above are the most popular and effective types out there right now. Certainly, if you want to grow your online presence, you need to start implementing all of these different ads into your marketing campaign.